Why Nondenominational Weddings?

By: Irene Conlan
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:24:00
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According to the Washington Post (July 2, 2006) “While clergy still perform most weddings, the ceremonies are straying ever farther from tradition, reflecting a “do-it-yourself” attitude toward religious nuptials”

How true, how true.

When I first started officianting at weddings seven years ago, non-denominational weddings were starting to proliferate. Now they seem to be exploding. Why do you think that is? I have done my best to find information and statistics and all that dull kind of stuff on the internet and I come up with zip to none. But I have my opinions and ideas about why this is happening. I’m going to share them with you and if you don’t like what I say, that’s o.k. It’s just an opinion about a trend.

Idea #1 More and more people are defining themselves as “spiritual” and “not religious” and don’t have a regular church in which to be married. Most of them want a wedding that includes God but some do not. They want more than a civil ceremony and they want their own spirituality reflected.

Idea #2 Couples are realizing that they don’t have to do the “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today”… and make promises to love, honor and obey. More couples are wanting custom weddings and wanting to have a say in the structure and wording of the ceremony.

Idea #3 There are more interfaith marriages taking place and they need a neutral venue and a neutral ceremony that reflects their particular personal style as a couple.

Idea #4 There are more nondenominationaal officiants available who are creative, flexible, loving and spiritual. They are able and willing to think outside that proverbial box to help design a ceremony that is fresh and exciting to the couple. They also are generally willing to work with people with various religious and spiritual paths.

Idea #5 Weddings have become a business and officiants are advertising and letting couples know about their services.

Idea #6 The internet makes it possible for everyone who works with weddings to make their services know through websites, blogs, directories and ads. This allows people to realize they have many more options than simply a choice between a church and a civil ceremony.

“Nondenominational” is generally considered Christian oriented but not in a specific denomination such as Baptist, Catholic, Episcopal or Presbyterian. And many ministers who perform nondenominational weddings alse perform Interfaith weddings such as Catholic-Jewish or Budhist-Christian, generally trying to incorporate something from each belief system.

A wedding is a joyful celebration in which two people declalre their love for each other publicly. Nondenominational weddings allow a couple to have “their ceremony their way.”

Irene Conlan has a masters degree in nursing, a doctoral degree in metaphysics, is a certified hypnotherapist and an ordained minister. She practices holistic hypnotherapy and officiates at weddings in Scottsdale, Az and the Phoenix metropolitan area. Irene can be found at: http://www.thepowerzone.com (Hypnotherapy Downloads) http://www.yourscottsdalewedding.com (Scottsdale Weddings) http://your-scottsdale-wedding.com (Wedding Blog)

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